Daron Cruickshank Taps to Satoru Kitaoka in Crazy RIZIN Kick-off

Design wizard. MMA mathematician. Formerly of Middle Easy, Justin Golightly has been featured on Bleacher Report, Uproxx and TMZ.

If the trumpet ensemble and the metal singing voice of Lenne Hardt introducing fighters wasn't enough to get you all hot and bothered with hype, Daron Cruickshank and Satoru Kitaoka revved up the RIZIN engines and had a ridiculous opening match.

The blood and wild strikes started coming quickly and often. These guys went straight after it knowing that the glory of the Cup Noodle man was on the line. Cruickshank even hit a sick spinning back fist to soccer kick combo.

After getting the crimson mask put on him from some brutal hits, Kitaoka finally listens to Shinya Aoki yelling from the crowd and takes Cruickshank down. That ended up being exactly what he needed to do. He nearly choked him completely out into the dark lands, as you can tell from his general, post-guillotine grogginess down below.

Aoki is screaming to Kitaoka try to take Daron down. And be careful in stand up.